Eight million stories … take one

There are eight million stories at a wrestling regional, and this is one of them …

Actually, there weren’t quite eight million stories at the Class 2A Notre Dame Regional on Saturday, but there were plenty more than could be mentioned in Sunday’s story. And for some reason a relatively obscure catchphrase made famous ( if anyone remembers) by a 1948 movie about New York called “The Naked City” — came to mind to open this blog entry filled with leftovers from Saturday.

I’m shaking out the digital recorder of quotes from the regional at Notre Dame …

East Peoria senior Alec Gonzalez had this to say after defeating Metamora’s Kyle White for the fourth time (by pin in 1:55 of the first period, one week after a narrow 4-3 defensive struggle against the Redbird freshman.

“It was a little different this time. This time he came after me hard. I just kept guarding my legs, trying to get my own shots in, staying aggressive against his aggression. I know exactly where he’s been, what he’s trying to do. In the past, if you lose to a guy, you come out aggressive wanting to get your revenge. That was what he was trying to do against me. I just kept the aggressiveness on him as well.”

Morton senior Vincent Hill followed up his second consecutive Mid-Illini title with his first regional championship. Hill had this to say after dominating ND’s Dan Snodgrass (seven takedowns and back-to-back 3-point near fall scores in a 20-5 technical fall at 5:22 ) in the 119-pound finale:

“He’s a real lengthy guy, so I knew coming into it I wanted to stick to my low shots and just try to sweep around the outside. I’ve been working on my offense in practice and I was ready to take the shots.”

And on the upcoming sectional, Hill said:

“This is my senior year, my last shot. I’m putting everything I have into having these practice and these matches to make them count. I have pretty high expectations.”

That’s all for now, but I’ll be back later with more regional outtakes ….